Karakul Lake and Muztagh Ata

Meaning of Karakul Lake is black lake in Kirgiz and Uyghur language. Meaning of Muztagh Ata is Father of Ice Mountain in Kirgiz and Uyghur language. Karakul Lake and Muztagh Ata Mountain are located southwest of Kashgar city; it is about 190kms from Kashgar city.

Muztagh Ata Mountain is one of the biggest glacier in China; it is hub of the great mountain ranges in Asia, the Karakoram Mountain to the south, Pamir plateau to the west, KunLun Mountain, TienShan Mountain to the north, it is near to Kongger nine peaks. Muztagh Ata Mountain is 7546m above the sea level. Kongger nine peaks, among the nine highest peaks are 7719m above the sea level. Every year end of June to end of August two month the climber from all over the world comes and climbs to Muztagh Ata. People who are interest in trekking around the Karakul Lake and Muztagh Ata they can, but they need to have special permit to do climbing and trekking.

Meaning of Karakul Lake is black lake in Kirgiz and Uyghur language. Karakul Lake is about 3600ms above the sea level. Karakul lake covered an area is about10sqkm; depth of the lake is 30m. The sources of the water in the lake from snow melt of the Muztagh Ata. The source of the water in Kashgar is the water from Muztagh Ata and some other mountain ranges. The water for drinking in Kashgar is from underground or tap, the water for irrigation in Kashgar is from the snow melt of Karakoram and Kunlun mountain ranges.

The Nationality who is living up at the lake is Kirgiz people, around 3000 Kirgiz people lives around the lake. The Kirgiz nationality living up at the lake is nomad, they raises animals, such as sheep, goat, horse, donkey, yak, cow. They live all the year at the lake. The source of the food at the lake came from kashgar, they makes their live by selling their animals. The Kirgiz people at the lake lives in yurt or mud stone house.

For your trip to the Karakul lake, you must have your passport with you. If you are Chinese you must have your ID card with you. You should have enough clothes to keep you warm, because temputeture difference between day and night is very big, sometimes you can see four seasons within an hour. If you intend to sleep over night at the lake, you should prepare high altitude tablet to solve your headache problem at night.